Saturday, January 19, 2008

Jason Brown, writing in an editorial on his stirring Avaiki website, makes an impassioned plea against the sale of Samoa's public radio 2AP. Responding to the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi - who says the sale decision has been in the pipeline for years and "there is nothing to worry about", Brown says:"Listeners next door in the Cook Islands might disagree."For years, for example, residents on the atoll of Pukapuka have tuned into 2AP not just because the language is closer to their own but because the signal from their supposed capital, Rarotonga, has been too weak to pick up."That's because the station was privatised in the mid-1990s by an acting broadcasting minister and friend of the current owners, while the real broadcasting minister was out of the country."Among other things, like cutting news bulletins, the new owners dialed down the broadcast strength to save power, i.e. money."This had tragic consequences for the northern atoll of Manihiki."Fatally unaware of looming hysteria in Rarotonga over cyclone warnings of an approaching cyclone, 19 people died in Manihiki on the first day of the cyclone season, 1st November 1997."Not everyone could be reached by phone, local Manihiki police did not have time to travel the large lagoon warning everyone, not everyone took the warnings seriously...."No commission of inquiry was ever held despite it being the worst loss of life in the country's history ..."

Listen to Mailbox on RNZI tomorrow (Monday, January 21) when David Ricquish of the Radio Heritage Foundation is due to explore some of the public radio issues. Visit http://www.rnzi.com/ for shortwave frequencies and times.

New Zealand's only award for critical journalism is being revamped to link in with a growing movement for more democratic local media.The Bruce Jesson Foundation, set up after the death of journalist-politician Bruce Jesson in 1999, has provided up to $3000 a year since 2004 for “critical, informed, analytical and creative journalism or writing which will contribute to public debate in New Zealand on an important issue or issues”. A review after its first four years has concluded that the award should continue, with a slight change in the criteria to cover publishing, as well as producing, critical journalism.Foundation chair Professor Jane Kelsey says experience to date shows that the barrier to good journalism is not always in the actual production of the work, but in finding an outlet in our commercialised market that is willing to publish it:"For example, freelance journalist Jon Stephenson, who won our award in 2005 for a two-part report from Iraq for Metro magazine, is so dedicated that he would have found a way to get to Iraq somehow. You might argue that Metro, as the publisher, should have paid his full costs for his trip there. But the reality of our commercial marketplace is that neither Metro nor any other New Zealand news outlet was willing to pay Stephenson's full costs for stories of marginal commercial value, so by part-funding his trip we effectively subsidised his publisher because we believed in the social value of the stories he planned to write."Kelsey says the award is now part of a growing recognition that the commercial imperatives of our largely foreign-owned media, increasingly focused on celebrities and consumerism, need to be balanced by a deliberate community-based effort to provide journalism on public issues – issues that affect us as citizens and workers as well as consumers.The union representing most journalists, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), is organising a public review of NZ journalism this year, seeking submissions on issues such as media ownership and commercial pressures.A Movement for Democratic Media is also being formed to bring together journalists and other citizens who want to produce and promote public issue journalism.Kelsey says: "Our award is more important than ever now. We hope we can support some of the other initiatives to produce more public issue journalism, and we hope that the growing recognition of this gap in our society will spur more journalists and citizens to apply for ouraward."The award covers living costs and direct costs such as phone calls and travel to enable New Zealanders to investigate and report on issues in depth. Applications for the 2008 award close on 30 June.Past winners, criteria and applications. More information:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Good to hear from the Kiwi journo team on a Jakarta practicum this week - Aroha and Dylan (AUT) and Will (Massey). They've finished the course part and now move into the internships next week - Aroha is going to Metro TV, Dylan joins TVRI and Will gets his start with Reuters. They are on the programme along with 20-plus Oz journo students or graduates.We should get a feed of stories from them - look for these at the Pacific Media Centre. Aroha's piece on ex-president Suharto's desperately clinging to life is here. And Dylan has a few bloggy bits here. Dylan was blown away by a national soccer semifinal between a Jakarta team and one from colonised Papua. Here are his thoughts on the experience:The soccer semifinal was crazy, riot police everywhere and when the Jakarta supporters realised they were going to lose 3-2 things got nasty. A group who were sitting above the Papuan supporters started ripping up the bench seats and chucking them at the people below. Riot police charged up and restored order but after that plastic water filled bottles were flying and most of the Papuans broke through a fence at the bottom and milled beside the field flanked by police. After the game, most were put of buses and escorted from the stadium to stop more fights. Two guys were set upon with metal pipes outside our hotel but got away with minor injuries, not a nice situation. My photo shows one of the Papuans celebrating on the field with some of the ever present police behind. I would hazard a guess that political tensions increased the tension as there seemed to be no love lost. A second group of supporters waiting for a later game also started bottling the Papauan, who charged up into their section with sticks forcing them to flee into ours, before I headed onto the field. I am currently thinking of staying on for a while afterwards and working here to do a few independent stories.

Friday, January 11, 2008

An update from Bill Rosenberg about his media ownership in New Zealand monitoring file (cartoon by Malcolm Evans from a previous PJR cover):A revised version of my paper "News media ownership in New Zealand" is now available, which includes updates to the 15 October 2007 version, including some suggestions from readers (many thanks). The changes are outlined below.It is available either by clicking the above link or going to the CAFCA web site. I am unlikely to release another update for at least 2-3 months. If you do not wish to be notified of future updates, please reply to this message and I will remove you from my list (with no offence taken!).The changes from the 15 October version:

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

A leaked videotape featuring fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, a former military police major and something of a cult figure with some reactionaries, blaming prime minister Xanana Gusmão as the person responsible for the crisis that engulfed East Timor in 2006. It has featured in the media and now Fretilin has called a media conference to discuss the contents of the tape. A statement by Francisco Guterres LuOlo, president of Fretilin, on 8 January 2008 said:

FRETILIN has called this press conference today to make public to the People of Timor-Leste, the Maubere people, that on the 31st of December 2007, we wrote to the President of the Republic and other institutions of our State regarding the allegations made by Mr Alfredo Reinado in a video recording that came into our possession last week, which has serious ramifications for our nation's stability and peace, and which will impact on our public institutions.In that video recording that has been widely distributed by unidentified persons, Mr Alfredo Reinado accuses Mr Xanana Gusmão as the person responsible for the crisis that engulfed our nation in 2006. I am sure that all of us here today have heard or seen the said video recording, or have perhaps read about it in a newspaper.When we viewed a copy of this recording that we obtained from the media, FRETILIN became extremely concerned with the impact that it would have on peace and stability in our country, as the statements made by Mr Alfredo Reinado may well lead to further public panic amongst our people already traumatized by similar statements from last year's crisis, and there may well be a surge in the number of currently internally displaced persons. We are concerned that the statements by Mr Reinado are aimed at continuing to divide our people and create further serious instability in our country.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Hepi niu yia for 2008 and, before we get into things Pasifika again, I'd like to share one of my highlights of 2007 - Le Caveman versus the AB Haka on YouTube. And this was just the start of the downfall of Les Noirs at the hands of Les Bleus. I had my rugby money on Chabal and the French! A pity they didn't knock out the Poms as well the following weekend after downing England twice in warm-up matches on the eve of the World Cup in France.

Now, back to the Pacific. Keep an eye out for the new book on development communication and the Pacific media being published by AMIC in Singapore due early in 2008. Co-authors Evangelia Papoutsaki and Usha Sundar Harris. Plus many contributors - among them Ron Crocombe, Kalafi Moala, Robert Iroga, Som Prakash, Shailendra Singh, Mark Hayes, Helen Molnar ... and me, of course. Definitely a worthwhile read and some touches of controversy too. It can be ordered via New Zealand's Pacific Media Centre.

Joseph Laban, of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, paints a bleak picture about media freedom in Timor-Leste. Although it might be better than in neighbouring Indonesia or the Philippines, it is still fairly tough as his SEAPA fellowship there has demonstrated. And not much seems to have changed since the NZ media mission there in June. As Joseph writes:The Timor Post has staff members who have been in constant fear for their lives since last year, when two of them were attacked and left for dead right outside their rundown office. Then again, other journalists in this young nation have had similar experiences. Last August, another major newspaper had its office windows smashed while one of its employees was struck repeatedly with rocks and sticks and his motorcycle trashed after he acknowledged that he worked for the paper. Ideally, this should not be happening in the world’s youngest democracy, which at one point had also been called by then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as "a child of the international community". But as the media in other Southeast Asian nations have found out, keeping the press free is a constant battle that is fought daily – even in a supposed democracy. Just last week, for instance, about 50 journalists covering a coup attempt were handcuffed with plastic luggage fasteners and hauled off for questioning by Philippine authorities. As of June 2007, the Philippines has also seen some 90 media practitioners killed in the line of duty since democracy was restored in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Fifty-three of the killings, adds the NUJP, took place under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.Meanwhile, in Indonesia, 58 cases of violence against journalists were recorded between August 2006 to August 2007 by the Alliance of Independent Journalists. According to the body, "government apparatus" has become the new enemy of press freedom, since it is believed to have perpetrated 10 of the recorded assaults.

Peering into a contaminated water well: The Solomon Islands report on sanitation and safety in the Solomon Islands. Pictured below: Joycely...

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Kia ora tatou and welcome to journalist David Robie's independent news media and politics commentary and analysis about Aotearoa/NZ and the Asia-Pacific region. Lukim yu... and also check out my Asia Pacific Network portal - see Handy Links. Pacific Media Centre at AUT University.
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